Before I get into the topic of this post, I’m riding the blue wave that is happening across the country tonight. It’s the midterms, and Dems are flipping seats left and right. The (Republican) governor of Texas conceded to his Democratic opponent–who is a Latina. Gina Hinohosa. Greg Abbott had been governor since 2015–and it’s quite the shock that a Democrat won. Same in Georgia, except the winner was a black woman. Keisha Lance Bottoms. And, closer to home, Peggy Flanagon is the first Native American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, and I’m proud that I got to vote for her. I have more mixed emotions about our new governor, Amy Klobuchar, but it’s exciting to me that four out my five representatives (governor, US senator, US representative, MN rep, and MN Senator) wil be women. It also tickles me that Amy Klobuchar might be able to directly appoint her replacement once she becomes governor (she’s a US senator, currently).
As I read all the results about an hour ago, i let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. There had been rumblings that we would have a blue wave, but I didn’t dare to hope. Things were so bleak and terrible, I half-believed that tthere would be shenangians and the Republicans would steal everything.
Instead, the Dems have taken back the House and the Senate. Several key seats have flipped. As I noted above, the South has risen, and it’s become blue! Or at least purple with blue happening in key positions.
Now, on the one hand, this isn’t unusual when the current administration is doing a shitty job or the economy is tanking (or there’s a pandemic) for the opposing party to win key seats. However, what is unusual is who won these seats. There are a lot of ‘first ever’, and they are mostly women of color.
This reminds me of when the entire Saint Paul Congress-elect in 2024 were women. They still are. Six out of the seven are women of color, and they are all under forty. Now, the St. Paul mayor is a Hmong woman, KeohlyHer (started this year), and she’s the first female and the first Asian American mayor of Saint Paul. They all worked hard to do this, and it was historic.
I have hope for the first time in a long time. Normally, I would steel my heart against it, but I’m just riding it out this time. We fucking deserve it after the hellscape of the last two years, and I’m savoring every minute. If it causes the orange-haired blowhard to have a meltdown, even better. I mean, he has one on the daily, anyway, so might as well get something out of it.
I am so pleased with the results for tonight. Of course I voted. It’s the least I can do. MN has one of the highest voter turnouts in the country (ranked first three times in the last decade, and usually in the top five), which makes me proud. My guess is that it’s in part because you can sign up to vote on election day at your polling station as long as you’re able to confirm your local address. It can be as easy as having a local registered voter confirming your address. Or a bill with your local address. Or a photo ID like a MN license. It’s so easy, and we want people to vote. Ahem.
I will say that politics used to be one of my hyperfixations/special interests. I’m not sure which I would categorize it as. It lasted years, and it consumed me. I wrote political posts (I was on the abortion beat), doomscrolled for hours, and consumed way more political news than was healthy for me. This was from the primaries to the second Obama election. I still followed politics after that, but I cut waaaay back in my political news consumption. And I quit writing about politics, too. That’s neither here nor there.
Here’s the thing. The way I consume interests, there has to be an end point because otherwise, I would not survive. Hm. I have to amend that. That’s how I feel about hyperfixations. I plunge myself completely into them with the full knowledge that I will burn out on them one day. My special interests are different. I go into them with my whole heart, but not necessarily full throttle.
This is what makes me different than other autistic people, I guess. As I said in yesterday’s post about my devotion to my martial arts, I have scaled back so I don’t burn out with my weapons. But I also don’t know if what I do is a lot or not. In other words, I don’t know if it’s healthy or not. I think it is, but self-reporting is notoriously flaky. I mean, I’m judging me. There’s no outside metric by which to gauge my interest. What may be healthy for one person may not be healthy for another.
I do think half an hour a day is fine. Two to three weapon forms a day? Also fine. Including me teaching myself and refining my current weapon form (Bagua Knives Form). See, the weird thing about me is that if I’m hyperfixated on something, it can consume my time completely. That’s whyi they’re short-lived. I can’t give that much energy to anything for several years. My special interests, on the other hand, not so much.
Except video games. I can play those for hours on end to the exclusion of everything else. And when I’m into one game, I play it until my eyeballs bleed. See, Elden Ring (FromSoft). I think I have to split video games into special interests (FromSoft games) and hyperfixations (any given indie game of the moment). I’m not sure if that actually makes sense, but it feels right in my brain.
This post has been all over the place, but that’s understandable given that it was an important election night. Also, I didn’t sleep well last night in part because of the elections today. I know my thoughts are scattered; that happens when I don’t have the wherewithal to pull myself together. More tomorrow.